Pleasure-railway.



N0. 803,679. PATENTED NOV. 7, 1905.

E. NS'IGN. PLEA RAILWAY.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

Inventor.

wt tnsses.

. Emory Ensi n, m wyvzi Aizom'e No 808,679. PATENTED NO '7, 1905'. E. S,ENSIGN.

. PLEASURE RAILWAY.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 21, 1905.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

' Inventor, Cligltn Emory ,SEns ign. 6M zifl/qg Attorney.

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EMORY S. ENSIGN, OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- TENTH TOCHARLES F. A. SMITH, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

PLEASURE-RAILWAY.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. '7, 12105.

Application filed August 21, 1905. Serial No. 275,042.

To all whom, it vnay concern.-

Be it known that I, EMORY S. ENSIGN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Cambridge, in the county of Middlesex and State ofMassachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inPleasure-Railways, of which the following is a specification, referencebeing had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention has, relation to improvements in pleasure-railways inorder to give to the occupants of the cars carried by the trucks alongthe line of the railway certain new sensations not experienced whileriding in the cars run .upon other pleasurerailways. The principalsensation to be experienced is that of the drop when the truck of thecar passes into the vertical portion and falls suddenly downward with orwithout thewheels revolving. Another novel sensation is that caused bythe truck passing rapidly down the forward precipitous portion when thewheels of the truck slide along upon the rails instead of revolving uponthe rails. Another novel sensation is caused by the truck turning upsidedown in passing onto the rearward extending portion and alsoin thesudden change from riding forward to riding backward. Still anothersensation is that caused by the truck passing rapidly down the rearprecipi tous portion when the occupants of the car are rapidly carrieddownward and rearward while riding backward, and, finally, in the suddenchange from riding backward to riding forward.

The invention also relates to improvements -in cars to be used upon arailway so constructed.

With these objects in view the invention consists in the novelconstruction of parts and their arrangement and aggroupment in operativecombination, as will be hereinafter fully and particularly pointed outand distinctly claimed.

I have fully and clearly illustrated the improvements in theaccompanying drawings, to be taken as a part hereof, and wherein Figure1 is a side elevation of the pleasurerailway and a side elevation of apreferred form of a truck and its hanging car to be used thereon. Inthis figure the car is shown as ascending, dropping, going in a circle,and precipitated backward with the truck upside down. Fig. 2 shows inside elevation, on a larger scale, the preferred form of such a truckand car running on horizontal rails. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the same.Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the same, showing the truck and its cardropping down a vertical section of the track. Fig. 5 is a sideelevation of the same with the truck upside down, showing it passingdown a rearward-extending precipitous portion of the track.

The same reference characters indicate the same parts in the differentfigures.

In the preferred form of the railway, as shown in Fig. 1, it will beseen that the structural posts 6 support and brace a pair of parallellower rails 7 and a pair of parallel upper rails 8. These rails extendparallel to each other the entire length of the railway-track. The trackmay form many twists and curves formed by combinations of the portionsof the track which I have shown in Fig. 1 and which I divide forconvenience of explanation into (a) the ascending portion, common tomost pleasure-railways, in which the truck is conveyed or hauled to thestarting-point (b) the starting-point, consisting of a track graduallysloped, common to all pleasure-railways c) the concaved track leading tothe vertical portion; ((1) the vertical portion, down which the cardrops; (6) the convexed portion used in a great many pleasure-railways,but which is used in mine preferably for the wheels to pick therevolutions necessary for the increased movement of the car; f) thehorizontal portion common to all; (g) the upward incline, up which thecar is carried by its own momentum, also generally used inpleasurerailways of the present time; (h) the outer semicircular curve;(i) the precipitous rearward incline, and .(j) the inner semicircularcurve.

Between the upper and lower rails 7 and 8 the wheels 9 and 10 revolve,and the wheels are firmly heldbetween these rails to prevent the truckfrom falling from off the track.

Any means for raising the truck from the lowest point of the track tothe gravity starting-point Z2 may be used. In the drawings I have shownan endless conveyer-chain 12, (having any suitable means for operatingit,) passing over a series of rollers or gears 13 and having a pluralityof gripper-hooks 14, se cured at proper intervals to said chain forgripping a portion of the truck and carrying the same upward until itfrees itself by its own forward motion. As such means for conveying atruck to the gravity startingpoint of a pleasure-railway are many andwell understood and as it forms no part of this invention, I will notherein further describe or illustrate it.

The truck is preferably made of metal and consists of a pair of forwardwheels 9, having flanges and connected by an axle 16, upon which axle ispivotally swung the arms 17 of the car 18, provided with one or moreseats 19. These arms are held from side movement upon the axle 16 by thebraces 20 and 21 but the car is so swung upon the truck that it retainsa horizontal or nearly horizontal position at all times, even though thecar is dropping straight downward, as shown in Fig. 4, when theoccupants of the car receive the same sensations as when dropping in aparachute, or even though the truck has been reversed upside down, as inFig. 5, and the occupants are being precipitated rearward and downwardwhile sitting backward.

Pivoted upon the axle 16 near the flanges 15 of the forward wheels 9 andextending rearward is a pair of parallel bars or arms 22, having studs23, upon which rotates the rear wheels 10 of the truck, which wheels areprovided with the flanges 2 1; but these arms 22 are so arranged as notto be in the way of the car 18 as it is swung around the truck or as thetruck is swung around it.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new is 1. In apleasure-railway, a track having a downward-extending portion incombination with a truck adapted to run on the track and fall throughthe downward-extending portion.

2. In a pleasure-railway, a track provided with a vertical portion incombination with a truck having a car swinging therefrom so that whenthe truck drops down the vertical portion the car remains in ahorizontal position.

3. In a pleasure-railway, a track provided with a diagonally backwardextending portion in combination with a truck having a car swinging fromits shaft and so arranged that the car can revolve around the truck asthe truck follows the contour of the track.

4. In a pleasure-railway, a track having sections thereof laid so that atruck passing over it will roll up, roll down, drop down, roll forward,and roll rearward upside down, in combination with a truck provided withan axle connecting one pair of wheels, a car swinging downward fromtheaxle, studs extending inward from the other pair of wheels and barsconnecting the studs and axle and all so arranged that thecar alwaysremains in nearly a horizontal position as the truck passes over thetrack, substantially as shown and described.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

EMORY S. ENSIGN. Witnesses:

CHARLES F. A. SMITH, ELLA M. PITTS.

